Lot Essay
In the Official Catalogue of the Museum of Artillery in the Rotunda, Woolwich, 1906, the entry under class XIX, numbers 57-62 reads: "Five knob-kerries of wood from South Africa, 15in. long, with knobs 4 in. in diameter. The knob of one is carved in 17 wings and the grasps of two roughened with carving. Weight about 1.8lbs." Our club which bears the painted class number 19 and the entry number 58 has seventeen bosses about the head and is almost certainly the one referred to in the description, though the attribution to South Africa must be incorrect. The Museum of Artillery at Woolwich have no record of when or how the club entered their collection.